Significant Digits For Friday, April 19, 2019

You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news. For even more facts, figures and discussion, check out our live FiveThirtyEight Politics podcasts in Texas in May.

448 pages

In case you were busy circumnavigating the world in a hot air balloon or something, a redacted version of the full 448-page Mueller report was released to the public yesterday. Among many, manyotherthings, the report describes President Trump’s reaction upon first learning that a special counsel had been appointed: “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.” [ABC News]

7 of 18 Democrats

The New York Times sent a climate policy survey to 18 Democratic presidential candidates. Their responses were not monolithic. They all supported remaining in the Paris Agreement, for example. But seven favored a carbon tax, while five others were only willing to consider it. And only seven were “unequivocally in favor of new nuclear energy development.” [The New York Times]

380,000 years after the Big Bang

Long, long ago, a mere 380,000 years after the Big Bang, helium hydride was formed — the first molecule ever to form in the universe. The molecule has since been produced in labs but had been hard to find in space. But now, billions of years after the Big Bang, scientists have discovered helium hydride in a planetary nebula in the constellation of Cygnus, confirming astronomical theories about the “dawn of chemistry.” [The Guardian]

Lowest since 1969

Fewer Americans are filing for unemployment benefits than at any time since 1969, according to the Labor Department. Claims for jobless aid — a proxy measure for layoffs — fell by 5,000 last week to 192,000, the lowest since September 1969. [Associated Press]

27th in WAR

You know what’s also experienced a remarkable fall: the Boston Red Sox. They’re off to a 6-13 start this season and may already be in real trouble, my colleague Neil Paine writes. According to wins above replacement, the Sox have gone from the third-best team in Major League Baseball last season to the 27th-best so far this year. [FiveThirtyEight]

$100 million

The National Enquirer, the supermarket tabloid, is being sold by American Media Inc. to the CEO of Hudson News, aka that place you buy magazines and Skittles in the airport. The Enquirer had been overseen for many years by David Pecker, a longtime Trump loyalist. [The Washington Post]